Curiosity froze the Tribble
by Areneth
Summary: Why do these things always happen to me?  Short JC piece.


  
Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager was not a happy camper. 

"How do we get into these situations?"

"And how come I am the only one here freezing!?"

She leveled another death glare at her first officer. The effect was somewhat spoilt by the wild chattering of her teeth. Having spent better part of an hour in the freezing cave.

Commander Chakotay was by now immune to the glare. The teeth chatter, of course, was entirely different matter. He sighed. Loudly. This only earned him another glare which he ignored. His lack of reaction only made her angrier.

Suddenly, a blood curling scream spread through the cave.

Chakotay had been expecting it. Rationally, he knew she had to get it out of her system; still, when it came his heart skipped a couple of beats. Had it been anyone else, cardiac arrest would have been unavoidable. Finally exhausted Janeway sank down on the floor. She didn't quite manage to suppress the shiver that accompanied the movement.

"There are times I really hate you Chakotay!"

He choose not to comment. The cold was not getting to Chakotay, for one simple reason, he had arrived prepared for the weather. The same, unfortunately, was not true for Janeway. The thin jacket she wore over her uniform offered little protection from the freezing air.

Chakotay allowed himself a moment to thank the spirits for keeping him safe from her wrath before unzipping his jacket and the thermo insulating micro fleece shirt. He handed it over wordlessly. Janeway did her best to ignore him and the peace offering.

A minute or so of chatter later her self preservation instincts kicked in and she snatched the proffered article of clothing from his unresisting hand. Damn the cold. It was getting to her. Chakotay sealed his jacket and studiously ignored her attempts to zip up the shirt with her frost numbed fingers. Offering any form of assistance at this point would have been suicidal.

5 minutes later and no closer to zipping up Janeway finally gave up and just wrapped the several sizes too big shirt around her slim torso. The chatter diminished somewhat. She untangled her hands from the shirt and started blowing warm air to warm her frost numbed fingers only to have a pair of mittens land squarely in her lap. Kathryn tuned her head to look at Chakotay but he was still studiously ignoring her and staring at the wall of ice in front of them. His hands were conspicuously hidden in his jacket pockets.

"Chakotay", Janeway started conversationally while pulling on the warm mittens.

"Hmm?"

She remained quiet until he finally turned to look at her, question in his eyes.

"Why are we still here?" Her voice had lost some of its edge with the heat permeating her body.

Chakotay considered his answer carefully. "Because the transporters are offline." he said finally.

"Yes, but why? Everything was ok when I left the ship this morning?"

Evasion was the best course of action at present. "That is true."

Janeway sighed when she realized nothing else was forthcoming. He was being evasive. That could only mean bad news. She gritted her teeth and ploughed on.

"Chakotay, exactly why is it that the transporters are offline?"

Her question was met by a wall of silence.

"COMMANDER!"

Nothing. It seemed he had developed resistance to her "obey or die" tone of voice somewhere along with the body heat. She had to stay calm. Frustration was not the answer.

Calm.

That was the key. Don't bite his head off until you have all the facts.

Calm. Janeway forced herself to calm down. She decided a change of tactics was in order.

/Ahh Chooooooooo/

That got his attention. His head snapped, worry evident in his eyes.

"Kathryn?"

Two could play the game. She ignored him. Just when he thought no further comment was forthcoming her teeth started chattering again. Chakotay scrambled to his knees and moved to face her. He took hold of her hands, rubbing some heat into them. The chattering continued unabated. He was beginning to worry.

"Kathryn? Are you still cold?"

Nothing.

He started to take off his jacket when she put hand on his chest to stop him. He looked up into her eyes.

Big mistake.

She had adopted the kicked puppy look, even adding a slight trembling to her lip to enhance the effect. Basically, that meant he was screwed. Janeway had to restrain herself from breaking into a huge grin. It wouldn't do. Not at the moment. She had to find out what was going on with her ship and knew he would now tell her whatever she wanted to know.

"Chakotay, why are the transporters off line." She repeated quietly.

Sighing once more he surrendered to the inevitable and settled down next to her.

"Because the ship is running on auxiliary power."

Her eyes grew as wide as saucers.

"It's not as bad as it sounds." he hurried to explain. "B'elanna was running a level one diagnostic on primary systems when we ran into a bit of trouble."

"A bit of trouble?! What do you mean ..." Chakotay raised his hand to interrupt.

"Bethard rigged the aft turbolift to get stuck once he and Megan got in. It seems they've hit a bit of a rough patch and he thought this was the best way to straighten things out. Unfortunately he didn't count on B'elanna running a diagnostic and in turn overlooked the possibility of a cascade failure of ..."

"The Primary systems. Oh Gawd, again!" she clutched her head in her hands.

"Why do these things always have to happen on my ship... when I'm away? Am I such a bad captain Chakotay?"

Chakotay made crooning noises and enveloped her in his arms.

"Don't I deserve one single away mission where nothing goes wrong with my ship?"

Kathryn rested her head against his shoulder sniffing. "Other Starfleet captains don't have to deal with this sort of lunacy."

"I know, I know, but look on the bright side - at least we have auxiliary power this time."

Janeway managed to turn in his arms just enough to level him with another glare. She then used her gloved hand to point his face towards the cave mouth, which offered a spectacular vista of a burning wreckage amidst a raging snow storm.

Chakotay cringed "OK, so I should have added another crushed shuttle to the tally."

Kathryn burrowed further in his lap "My knight in a crashing shuttle. Bright side indeed!" she huffed.

Chakotay grined - she was safe and warm in his arms - and off the captain's hook for a few hours. Things were starting to look up.

If only he had not crashed the shuttle - again - B'elanna would never let him live it down. Oh well...you win some, you lose some.


End file.
